US Army to deploy Individual Gunshot Detector to help give U.S. soldiers a bead on enemy fire and Individual Gunshot Detector is an acoustic monitor attuned to tracking down the source of gunshots just by their sound……..
U.S. Army forces in Afghanistan will begin receiving the first of more than 13,000 gunshot detection systems for the individual dismounted Soldier later this month.”We’re really trying to ensure that every Soldier is protected,” said Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, Program Executive Officer Soldier. The Individual Gunshot Detector or IGD – made by QinetiQ North America – consists of four small acoustic sensors worn by the individual Soldier and a small display screen attached to body armor that shows the distance and direction of incoming fire. The small sensor, about the size of a deck of cards, detects the supersonic sound waves generated by enemy gunfire and instantaneously alerts Soldiers to the location and distance toward the hostile fire.“When you get fired on, instead of trying to figure everything out, you will have technology to assist you in knowing what happened and where the shot was coming from,” Fuller said. The entire IGD system is procured by PEO Soldier and the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force, weighs less than two pounds.The idea is to strategically disperse the systems throughout small, dismounted units to get maximum protective coverage for platoons, squads and other units on the move.Over the next 12 months, the Army plans to field up to 1,500 IGDs per month.In the future, the Army plans to integrate this technology with its Land Warrior and Nett Warrior systems. These are network-situational-awareness systems for dismounted units, complete with a helmet-mounted display screen that uses GPS digital-mapping-display technology.“The next thing we want to do is try to integrate this capability with other capabilities; for example, we have Land Warrior deployed in Afghanistan and we’re going to have Nett Warrior coming into the force. How about, if you get shot at, not only do I know where that came from, but others know where it came from because I can network that capability,” said Fuller.
shot detection and physiological status monitoring ,PSM, are the two sensors needs being addressed in Nett Warrior. The new android platform will accelerate this. For instance the Zephyr system is being developed now as part of Nett Warrior for PSM. the company sells it commercially now for mHealth applications